Time to Shop!

I did a little bit of shopping on Thursday. I made a trip to CVS for free batteries and such, and I also did a little online shopping that day as well. I didn't spend a dime on Friday. I am not at all a Black Friday shopper. Today I went to two consignment shops that were having 50% off of almost everything for "Small Business Saturday." Some of the toys I bought will be gifts for my kids or my nieces. I also did some more online shopping today. We have four birthdays within the next 20 days (three grandparents plus Ian), and I am buying Christmas gifts for 27 family members this year. I was proud of Nadia when we were at the consignment shop as she kept finding toys and suggesting that I  buy it for Rachel or another cousin. It's so easy for Nadia and Ian to get the "gimmees." I am spending less than $10 total on all of Oliver's gifts combined this year since he is still in the oblivious stage.

Six Frames

Paul and I decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. The first eight years of our marriage we got a fresh tree, but in 2009 we got an artificial one, which is somewhat ironic because there's a Christmas tree farm across from our house. Last year we bought a few decorations at Target after Christmas on clearance so Nadia and Ian enjoyed playing with some new ornaments and little Christmas stuffed animals. We also had purchased new stocking holders for the mantle. I had forgotten that I had bought six of them. I went back and forth in my mind last year, and finally decided it was better to buy six so we'd have one for our fourth child, if the FET was a success because it might be impossible to get another one that matched a couple of years down the road. That was the only thing I bought for our last baby. It was hard not to burst into tears as I unpacked that box today. Nonetheless, the five picture frame mantle holders look really nice on our mantle.

I love Christmas music, and it was a delight to watch the kids be so enthralled while we watched Frosty the Snowman. Nadia even put in one of my Christmas cd's (Stephen Curtis Chapman) which was a thrill to me as I do get weary of the Veggie Tales cd's. And of course I love dressing my kids in Christmas clothes!

Every day the kids say things that make me smile. Here are a few recent ones...

* at dinner tonight part of the cheese fell off of Ian's slice of pizza. He told me the peel came off. LOL!

* Oliver now says "quack quack" when he sees a picture of a duck. After the other four of us finished praying before bedtime this evening, Oliver said "amen." Way to go, Oliver!

*a couple of days ago Nadia told me she can't wait to meet Zipporah in Heaven some day. I wonder how many other people have made that statement (she was Moses' wife).

*a few weeks ago I made the mistake of asking Ian how old he thought I was. He told me 61. Oi vey. That is not something you should tell your mom when she's actually 41 years old.

Thanksgiving Thursday

This morning we listed some of our blessings from the past year in the Thanksgiving Day journal that I started last year.  Last year I was the scribe for all our lists. This year Nadia write her list, and I wrote everyone else's. A new tradition we started today is to have donuts for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning. Paul and Nadia picked up some donuts yesterday after they went bowling in preparation for our special breakfast. A friend of mine mentioned that they have "donut day" one Saturday morning a month in their family, and I thought that it was a great idea to make a tradition that involves eating donuts. I thought we'd have them for breakfast on a few holidays throughout the year starting with Thanksgiving.

This definitely won't go down as a typical Thanksgiving Day for us because we didn't eat any turkey today or see any of our extended family. Up until yesterday afternoon the plan had been for me to serve dinner for 14 people at noon today, but Paul's mom ended up back in the hospital on Monday night as her shoulder is infected where they recently removed the skin cancer and her pneumonia had returned as well. My dad ended up in the ER on Tuesday night with a b/p higher than 230. They think he has a virus in his nerves which is causing him a lot of pain, which at times is raising his blood pressure. If we had dinner today as planned, only three of the nine guests would have been able to make it. My friend, Cheri, still came to have lunch with us, and we're planning to have a turkey dinner on Sunday afternoon that hopefully Paul's family can attend. I am not a big fan of turkey so I don't mind that we didn't eat any turkey today. What I missed the most were the pies! My mom had planned to bring a pie, and Millie always brings several yummy desserts from her bakery. Nadia and I made some M&M cookies this evening so we could have something sweet.

As I reflect on the past year, here are a few of the blessings that come to mind...

1. Paul graduated from Penn State with his Ph.D. in Chemistry in May!

2. Paul began a nine month contract as an Assistant Professor at Bloomsburg University in August!

3. No one in our immediate family had a surgery, hospitalization, or even a sick visit at a doctor's office over the past year! We couldn't say that the past few years, and we won't be able to say that next year, so I'm grateful we can say it today!

4. Oliver might still be a little peanut (5th percentile), but he's gained a lot of weight and grown a lot longer over the past year!

5. Oliver learned how to sit, crawl, stand, walk while holding onto something or someone's hand, go up and down the stairs by himself, say four words, wave, clap his hands, do the "touchdown" signal with his hands, eat table foods, drink from a sippy cup, etc. He's an outstanding eater, thankfully!

6. Ian and Nadia are very thankful for our new iPad.

7. We enjoyed our vacation to Florida in May as well as our trips to Sesame Place, Knoebels, Hershey Park, Disney on Ice, and DelGrosso's.

8. The kids and I really enjoyed our membership at the swimming pool this past summer.

9. I am thankful that I am now a stay-at-home homeschooling mom.

10. Three new babies were born in our extended family this past year. My sisters each had a baby girl (we haven't met Grace or Julianna yet), and Paul's niece had a girl (Autumn) in August in Florida.

11. Nadia has made a lot of progress over the past year. She learned how to blow her nose, swing herself, spell MANY words, read, tell time, add, subtract, etc. She made great strides with drawing and soccer and has begun to learn to play the piano. She attended theatre camp for the first time this past summer.

12. Ian made a lot of progress over the past year with his feeding skills. We still have a way to go, but he can now feed himself breakfast (just in the past week I started putting milk in his cereal and he's now eating cereal with a spoon instead of using his fingers to eat dry cereal) and lunch. He feeds himself dinner when it's something he likes (pizza, pancakes, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets). He's learned to drink cold milk. All of his dietary restrictions were lifted this year! PTL!

13. Ian has been learning a lot as well. He can now do 50-100 piece jigsaw puzzles all by himself. He knows the sounds that most letters make, and he is starting to read simple (short vowel) words. He has started memorizing Bible verses.

14. Of course the biggest blessing in my life is my Heavenly Father. I am so thankful that Nadia is also a Christian, and I will continue to pray fervently for the rest of the family to accept Him as Savior some day.

Let it Snow!

 For several weeks the plan had been for us to go roller skating this morning. A local skating rink has a session at 10:00am on Tuesdays. I have gotten used to taking the three kids most places by myself, but I knew I couldn't take them all roller skating by myself. Our plans changed when we awoke to a winter wonderland outside. Ian was thrilled at the sight of SNOW, and Nadia was disappointed because she really wanted to go roller skating. It would have been Ian's first time roller skating. We should be able to go a couple of times during Paul's six week break in between the fall and spring semesters. Paul and Nadia are supposed to go bowling tomorrow with one of the homeschooling groups. Hopefully that will still happen!

 

 


I submitted three more applications for Paul today, which puts the total at fourteen, and I am almost done with another one.

Oliver's big accomplishment for the day was adding another word to his vocabulary. When I was leaving his bedroom after putting him in his crib for his nap, he waved to me and said "bye bye." At dinner I asked him to say "bye bye" to show Daddy his new word, and he said "bye bye" on command and also waved again. Yay, Oliver!

I'd ask for prayer for Paul's mom. She ended up back in the hospital today. She really wants to join us for Thanksgiving as aside from a brief visit at one soccer game, we haven't seen them in three months.

 

2 Interiews and 1 Party

Paul had his first phone interview this morning for a tenure track position to begin in August 2014. It was with Rowan University in New Jersey. Shortly after he finished that interview, he received a call from Florida Gulf Coast University inviting him to participate in a phone interview on December 6. It's very encouraging to get the interview process going again. I have submitted 11 applications thus far, and one of those schools withdrew their job posting without completing the search. So this means 2 of the 10 schools have invited him for a phone interview. I have 7 more applications to complete in the next few weeks. The newest one added to the list is in Frederick, Maryland. On a cold day like today, I have to say that Florida sounds pretty wonderful!

I took the kids to a two hour long Thanksgiving party this morning. I felt badly because the one mother put a lot of work into planning many crafts, games, and snacks. She brought four gallons of apple cider, but in fact there were only five children there, and Nadia was the oldest, and the only way Oliver participated was to eat popcorn. Nadia and Ian loved the turkey races with the balloons as well as the snacks. They each filled a sugar cone with dried papaya, dried pineapple, dried dates, chocolate chips, and candy corns to make "cornucopias." Oliver had his first testosterone shot this evening, which means his surgery will be six weeks from today. I am very thankful that our neighbor (who is an ER nurse) gave him the shot.

If Oliver's eyes had been more open, this pictures would have be the "winner." I'll keep on trying....

Getting Closer

 

Yesterday I made multiple attempts at getting a close-up photo of all three kids. All of them were deleted from my memory card and computer. Today we definitely got a lot closer to coming up with a  keeper. Getting a 1, 3, and 5 year old to keep their heads close together and smile and look in the right direction at the same time is very difficult! There were a few pictures earlier this year when I got a good picture with all three kids, but they weren't close up shots, and usually Paul was also in the photo. Next year I need to remember to work on getting this photo taken earlier in the year when it's warmer outside. The lighting conditions are so much better outside! It was 25 degrees out when we drove home from church today. There was no way we were taking a photo outside today! I might end up using one of the photos I took today, but I'm going to keep trying for the next 7 days (unless I get a "winner" before then). I got a bunch of good pictures of Oliver at the piano in his tuxedo today. It was hard to pick which to post!

 Both of our football games were aired today, but unfortunately only the Steelers won. While the Giants were on, Nadia and I went to the last session of our seven week small group Bible study on Heaven. Although she brought princesses to play with, I asked her questions about it, and her answers showed she had been listening to at least part of it. The last two Sundays I have played handbells. Oliver was in the nursery, and Nadia was in Sunday School both times. Ian didn't want to go to the Sunday School class at that church so he stayed in the worship service both Sundays. I was rather impressed with how well he was behaved. It did help that their worship service doesn't last as long as ours usually does. This afternoon I did a turkey craft with the kids. I will do a few more with them this week. I love handprint crafts, and of course they love anything that involves paint!

 Friday night we let Nadia pick our dinner as well as our activities for family fun night. She kept vacillating between McD's and Friendly's, and in the end she picked Friendly's. We also let the kids ride the carousel inside the mall once. At home Nadia picked playing Hide and Seek and Simon Says. On Saturday I taught her how to play Uno. She laughed her head off whenever I had to draw a lot of cards. Candyland and Chutes and Ladders are not my favorite games to play. I am excited about playing other games with the kids as they grow older!

Top 14 Recipes

The last few years I have done far more baking than I had ever done before, and I've also tried many more new recipes. Today I made shepherd's pie for the first time. The first time I remember having it was in college in Ohio. I have been trying to think of recipes that don't include pasta because Ian is not a fan of pasta, but unfortunately it was a major battle to get him to eat the shepherd's pie tonight. At least Daddy was home so I didn't have to endure the entire battle by myself. I thought it might be nice to share some of the new recipes (in no particular order) that I tried which have become favorites in our house (for at least some members of our family anyhow). Enjoy!

1. Beef noodle bake - egg noodles, ground beef, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, etc.

2. Tuna melt pie - eggs, milk, cheddar cheese, tuna, etc.

3. Slow Cooker Chicken Barbecue - brown sugar, chicken, Italian dressing, etc.

4. Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup - potatoes, cream cheese, chicken stock, etc.

5. Chicken Supreme - chicken, almonds, bread crumbs, parmesan

6. Chicken Bacon Bowtie Bake - chicken, bowtie pasta, milk, cheese, bacon, cream of chicken soup

7. Parmesan Crusted Chicken - chicken, mayo, parmesan, bread crumbs

8. Slow cooker Pork BBQ - pork, beef broth, barbecue sauce

9. Slow cooker chicken and dumplings - chicken, vegetables, biscuit dough, cream of chicken soup

10. Heath Bar Cookies

11. Butterscotch Chip Cookies

12. Reese's Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies

13. Garlic cheddar biscuits

14. German Apple Cake

Thankful Thursday

1. On Saturday all three kids slept in until at least 7am! WOOHOO! Oliver was the first one up, and Ian didn't get up until 7:20, which was amazing! Oliver and Nadia slept even later on Sunday. Oliver was up at 6:15 on Monday, and I would normally have let him cry a little to see if he'd go back to sleep, but he was having a horrible coughing fit so I had to go get my baby and snuggle him. On Tuesday I did let him fuss a bit when he woke up at 5:50, and I was very glad I did because then he slept another hour. Nadia slept in later this morning than I think she's ever slept in her life - 8:45! Usually she gets up sometime between 7:00-7:30.

2. The Giants and Steelers won again on Sunday! If our teams win their next two games, we both will have won as many games as we've lost this season.

3. We had a few warmer weather days. It was a delight to walk to the playground on Saturday and Monday. A temperature of 60 degrees felt balmy after having highs in the 30's just a few days before that. It's all a matter of perspective!

4. Oliver's naps have been improving! There are still days when his morning nap is only 30 minutes long, but that is no longer the norm. The norm is now 60 minutes for his morning nap, and his afternoon nap has also been getting a little bit longer. It was actually 2 hours long yesterday (not the norm but greatly appreciated!). Today both naps were longer than 60 minutes. Yesterday and today his total time napping was 3 hours each day!! WOOHOO! It took 6 months to get him back on track. It is easier to do home schooling with Nadia and housework when he sleeps longer. In light of that, I bought the Motivated Mom chore app and started using it today. Also enough time has passed that I no longer wince at the thought of going on vacation again. I paid our time share fee for 2014 yesterday, deposited our week, and have started searching for a place to go on vacation in 2014.

5. I'm thankful for Paul's safety as there was a bomb threat yesterday afternoon in the science building (regarding the other FT chemistry adjunct!). Paul was having office hours when the building was evacuated.

6. Nadia is making great progress in her school work. In math we've been working on telling time with an analog clock, in spelling she's been doing compound words, and in reading she's been working on words with "ee," plurals, contractions, and words with long vowels. For decades I wanted to be a mom, and I also wanted to be a teacher since I was in elementary school. Being a homeschooling mom is the perfect way to combine both of those passions! I am thankful Paul had the idea and desire for me to homeschool our kids. It would be easier to cook and clean if I sent my kids to school, but I absolutely love teaching them here at home.

7. Paul's mom got a good report at the hospital yesterday! They are indefinitely postponing her chemo/radiation for the lymphoma; she doesn't return to the oncologist until March! She has two more treatments scheduled for her MRSA, and she seems to have recovered from the double pneumonia. Her shoulder is healing from the skin cancer surgery she had two weeks ago. We're still praying for Oliver and Paul to get healthy within the next week so that we won't pass any germs on to her on Thanksgiving.

8. Ian did a great job at the hair salon today. His haircut cost $2.55; I gave her $5. She gave him an excellent hair cut!

9. I saw today while driving Nadia to gymnastics that a Panera Bread will be opening in the near future! I love that restaurant, especially the strawberry salad they serve in the summer. Yummy!

10. Paul will not be teaching the next eleven days due to Thanksgiving break (and the fact he doesn't have class on Mondays or Fridays). He has a lot of grading to do (ex. research papers), but we should see a bit more of him than we usually do. Yahoo!

Breakfast with Rapunzel

I made Nadia's breakfast, and she made Rapunzel's. I hope it is a LONG time until she outgrows playing with dolls!

Number Five

Oliver has been really fussy the past several days. I assumed it was because he hasn't been feeling well (cough, runny nose, etc.), but I discovered this morning that he also had gotten his fifth tooth sometime in the last few days. Oliver has five teeth, and three of them are molars! His newest tooth was his first molar on his bottom jaw. When I take pictures of him, it looks like he has only two teeth since molars don't show in pictures. Nadia's bottom two teeth are still wiggly, but I think it's going take awhile before they fall out. My babies are growing up.

Christmas Pics

This morning I saw the proofs from our Christmas mini photo session. I don't like any of them enough to pay another $15 to get all the images on a CD. I'm just ordering the prints that were included in the smallest package. Because of that I won't be able to post the pictures on the blog. If any of you (such as grandmas) want to check them out, go to www.mhp.shootproof.com. You have to enter something in the email address and the password is jolly. I am ordering one of the pics of all three kids and one of just Ian and one of just Oliver. Nadia is usually the easiest one of my kids to get a nice smiling picture (with a dimple!), and I don't like any of the pictures she put in our gallery of just Nadia. The ironic thing is that when she did our family shoot in August, she took tons of great pictures of Nadia. She is really nice to work with. As I looked at the proofs, I was wishing one of the pics of Ian was cropped to be more of a close-up. I sent her a message on FB, and she immediately cropped it for me, which I greatly appreciated. It is a really nice picture of Ian.

Well the bottom line is that I have zero desire to sign up for another mini session (she does them for Valentine's, Easter, patriotic, fall, Halloween, and Christmas).  It's much cheaper for me to take pictures myself. I am determined to get a nice close-up photo of my three kids together next week. If I have to try every day, I'll do it until I get a good one. I'm waiting until next week since Paul will be off of school. It's hard for me to get all three kids to smile and look at me while I'm also taking the picture. I'll still need to pay someone to take our family picture next year, but I think I'll make it my goal that by 2015 I learn how to take our family picture myself using a timer or remote. The two photos in this post were taken this afternoon on our way to the playground. You can tell we live near Amish people!

First steps

Oliver took his first steps yesterday evening! He took a couple of steps toward Paul while I was at the grocery store. I was very bummed that I wasn't present to witness those first steps, particularly as I spend FAR more time with Oliver than Paul does, but Paul didn't witness Ian or Nadia's first steps, so I guess it was his turn. Today he took a few steps on several occasions, and I did see him do it a few times. He mostly took steps toward his Daddy. I am very glad I didn't accept the referral for physical therapy. I  think he'll be taking off in the very near future. I did email a PT in our church, and she had said #1 the doctor should be viewing Oliver as 13 months old in light of his being born months early and #2 that it's considered normal as long as the child is walking by 18 months. I expect by the end of the week I'll be posting a video of Oliver walking! He wasn't feeling very well today so I couldn't get a nice picture of him, but boy did he look cute. I think the suit he wore today (which included a hat) might be the cutest suit I've ever bought for either of the boys. He'll be wearing it again, and I'll be sure to get a picture of him in it! The shirt is a dark mauve color.

Ian got up at 6:30, but the other two really slept in. I had to wake Nadia up at 7:45 so that she would have time to get dressed and eat as we had to be out the door at 8:10 since the handbells were playing this morning. Oliver slept until 8am so he had breakfast in the van on the way there. He slept a full 12 hours last night!!! Considering he rarely sleeps until 7am, it was pretty amazing that he slept that long. Yesterday all three of them slept until at least 7am. Nadia quickly made the adjustment to the time change, but yesterday was the first time I felt like both boys had also made the switch.

We love books!

Once a year I like to post a list of some of the kids' favorite books. I wrote a list in October 2010 and September 2011 and May 2012. I have to say reading to the kids is one of my most favorite parts of the day. I am so thrilled that they enjoy it just as much as I do.

None of the books from the 2010 list are current favorites. Once Oliver gets a little bit bigger I imagine some of those will reappear. Oliver now selects books and brings them to Paul or I to "read," but of course he's not to the stage of really enjoying books yet. He's stopped eating books, but now we are working on the concept of not ripping books.

The books by Dave Ramsey on the 2011 list are still some of Ian and Nadia's most favorite books. Nadia still loves Berenstain Bears books, fairy tales, and books by Kevin Henkes. Ian still loves Little Critter  and Froggy books. They both still enjoy books by Robert Munsch. This list was much harder to create because we read a wider variety of books lately in part because we check so many out of the library each week. Previously Nadia went through phases where she was really obsessed with certain books (Madeline, Amelia Bedelia, Pinkalicious, Fancy Nancy, Curious George, etc.), but aside from Beatrix Potter, that hasn't been true for her lately. Here are some favorite books and authors that weren't listed on any of the previous lists:

1. Beatrix Potter - Nadia is really into stories about Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Jeremy Fisher, etc.

2. Caps for sale (Ian)

3. Good thing you're not an octopus (Ian)

4. The monster at the end of this book (Ian)

5. No more water in the tub (Ian)

6. Dr. Seuss books

7. Magic School Bus books

8. Larry Boy books (Veggie Tales)

9. Stone soup

10. How to make an apple pie and see the world (Nadia)

11. Henry's freedom box (Nadia)

12. Seven silly eaters (Nadia)

First bow tie

Ian has never worn a bow tie, although I did buy a tuxedo for him a few months ago at a consignment shop. It will be a few years before he's big enough to wear that outfit though. This summer I also bought one for Oliver in size 18 months. Nadia likes dressing up her dolls, and I love dressing up my kids. I wrestled with whether or not to sign the kids up for a mini Christmas photo session, and I finally decided to give it a whirl with the photographer who took our pictures in August. I was going to have the kids wear red and black, but Nadia really wanted to wear a black and white dress. So I looked through the boys' closets to find what would go with her dress the best. I was thrilled that the size 18 month tuxedo fit Oliver. Instead of having him wear the tuxedo pants, I had him wear a pair of size 12 month black and white pin striped dress pants. He looked SUPER cute. None of Ian's suits went with the color scheme so I had him wear a more casual Christmas outfit. He was thrilled, as he has been dying to wear the penguin Christmas sweater vest. Now that bow ties are so popular, maybe I'll be able to buy more of them inexpensively for Ian and Oliver to wear in the future. I highly doubt any of my kids will ever be a flower girl or a ring bearer, but I can still have fun dressing them up in formal attire.

The picture I was most hoping for was a close up of the three kids to use for a necklace for myself, necktie for my dad, etc. I am dubious that we achieved that goal because Oliver was not in a smiling mood today. I brought bubbles, but even blowing bubbles didn't amuse him. I was doing everything short of standing on my head to get a smile. She took individual shots of each of the kids and then group pictures of the three of them together. Hopefully we got some good ones! This experience again confirms in my mind that with little ones it's better to hone my skills because it's really hard to guarantee that they will be smiling at the given time if we make an appointment with a professional photographer. In two weeks we'll put our Christmas tree up, and hopefully I can get some good photos of the kids (separately and together) during the month of December. I am anxious to see the online gallery once the photographer finishes editing the pictures. This evening I discovered why Oliver wouldn't smile much at all today. He was feeling worse. He had a fever and threw up once this evening. My poor baby.

I'll write more about it in several weeks, but my main focus in 2014 is going to be on traditions - some are done daily, some weekly, and some just on certain holidays or special occasions throughout the year. As I have been thinking through family traditions, one of the fondest ones from my childhood was "family fun night." We rotated through the family in terms of who got to pick what the family did together for that week's family fun night. It might have been playing a board game like Monopoly, Sorry, or Uno, playing rough house with my dad, coloring, doing a jigsaw puzzle, riding bicycles, etc. I had always planned to make that a tradition in our family as well, and I decided a few weeks ago that there was no reason to wait any longer with getting started. Last week I explained the concept to Nadia and Ian, and we set the order of picking from oldest to youngest. Oliver will be excluded from choosing until he's older. Last week Paul picked to do a 300 piece jigsaw puzzle together. Today I chose a few games - Twister, Simon says, beginning sound BINGO, and an activity to work on the concept of one minute (can you tell I'm a homeschooling mom?). For that activity we had a timer and Nadia, Ian, Paul, and I took turns coming up with activities and we would rotate who would do the activity and the rest of us would count to see how many times the person could do that activity in one minute. Nadia did jumping jacks, bent down to touch her toes, did forward tuck rolls for a minute, wrote her name as many times as she could in a minute, etc. Nadia and I threw a ball back and forth to see how many times we could catch the ball in a minute.

The other tradition we've just started is that one person a week gets to pick our dinner out. I got the idea of eating out once a week from my friend, Jo. Over the past five years we've rarely gone out as a family. We get fast food when we are driving to and from Maryland or are on some other day trip, and we usually eat out once a day when we're on vacation. Otherwise we usually eat at home. For most of our marriage we have been in the habit of buying takeout pizza about three times a month. We are going youngest to oldest with this rotation. Ian got the first pick this week. I told the kids they could pick a restaurant for us to go to (Perkins, Friendly's, McD's, Subway, Cracker Barrel, or Wendy's) or Daddy could bring home pizza. Ian picked carryout pizza. Nadia says she's going to pick going out to Friendly's next week. We shall see if she changes her mind between now and then. The kids are excited about these two new family traditions, and I hope that they'll have fond memories of these when they are older.

Thankful Thursday

1. I am very thankful that Ian, Nadia, and I are still healthy. We have been earnestly praying for Oliver and Paul to get over their colds that they've now had for EIGHT weeks because the kids REALLY want to see Grandma and PopPop as soon as possible, but we can't get together until we're all healthy. Hopefully that will happen by Thanksgiving, if not before then.

2. Paul, Nadia, and Ian had a nice time making two cars at Lowe's last Saturday. Nadia was better at using the hammer than Ian, but she is 17 months older than him. Oliver and I did some Christmas shopping at the mall for an hour while they did their project. They each received eye goggles, an apron, a patch for their apron to signify the completion of that particular project, and a certificate. Paul said he liked the one at Home Depot a little better, in part because it wasn't as crowded, but he's planning to take the kids to the workshops at both stores next month.

3. The kids enjoyed being in the nursery on Tuesday mornings during my ladies Bible study even though they were the only children there. They were very well taken care of as many times there were three adults in there! The study on Gideon concluded two days ago and we enjoyed a tasty potluck luncheon. The apple cake I made was a hit!

4. The last two Sunday evenings Nadia joined me at the small group Bible study on Heaven at our pastor's house. I love that she likes to come along!

5. Yesterday we had fun shopping at Dollar Tree to fill three shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Nadia immediately grasped the concept that we weren't shopping for our family, but it took Ian quite a bit longer to realize that I wasn't buying toys for him, although I did buy him three jigsaw puzzles (can't beat the price of $1/each) as most days I have him do one jigsaw puzzle while Nadia is doing her schoolwork. He can do 48-60 piece puzzles all by himself, and he can do 100 piece puzzles with a little bit of help. After shopping I took the kids to McDonald's for dinner and some time to play in the play land since it's been too cold to go to the playground this week. Oliver is rather brave when it comes to climbing in the play land! All three kids shared a box of McNuggets. I'm so glad there is something Ian can eat there.

6. One of the senior faculty members in Paul's chemistry department agreed to observe him one more time and write him a letter of recommendation for his job applications. I think a reference that speaks to his teaching skills will really strengthen his application packet. He's going to ask one more to see if two of the references could be from his current employer. I have six applications that I need to complete in addition to the eleven I already submitted. The one most recently added to the list is in North Carolina.

7. I still love my camera and really enjoy taking pictures of my three beautiful blessings. I look forward to continuing to hone my photography skills in the months and years ahead!

8. It does my heart good to see Nadia and Ian enjoying playing together. I look forward to the day when Oliver can join in the fun!

9. I'm very grateful for the public library. We check out books and dvds every Thursday while Nadia is in gymnastics.
10. Both of our football teams won on Sunday. Paul's game wasn't aired in our area, but given how badly both our teams have done this year, we were grateful for the wins! We'll be trading places this Sunday, as his game will be aired and mine won't be. Hopefully our teams can win a few more games before the end of the season.

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

Seven shots!

Yesterday morning I took Nadia and Oliver to the pediatrician for her 5 year and his 15 month check-ups. At her three year check-up, she weighed 34lbs (80th percentile) and was 36 inches tall (26th percentile). On October 12, 2012, she was 40lbs (75th percentile) and 40 inches tall (39th percentile), and yesterday she was 47 lbs (80th percentile) and 42.5 inches tall (30th percentile). As usual, the doctor said something to be about her BMI being too high. She passed her vision and hearing screenings. They said she is 20/25 for vision, which is normal for a five-year-old. The most traumatic part of her appointment was that she got four shots. She hadn't had any shots for a few years so she had no memory of any of the previous shots. She just said "ouch" with the first shot, but then she started crying with shot #2 and didn't stop until shot #4 was done. The good news is that she won't need any more shots until she's eleven years old. Whew. She would have "only" had three shots (DTap-IPV, MMR, and Varivax), but I went ahead and gave her permission to have the flu shot while we were at it.

Oliver gained 1.5 pounds over the past three months. He stayed at the 5th percentile for weight on a standard chart or 15th percentile on an adjusted chart. Oliver's head circumference grew 1/2 a centimeter over the past 3 months which puts him at 46.5 cm (30th percentile or 45th percentile on an adjusted chart). The pediatrician questioned the validity of yesterday's length measurement because supposedly he grew 2.5 inches over the past 3 months. He was at the 13th percentile for length at 12 months and would be at the 47th percentile now if that measurement was correct (77th percentile adjusted). Hopefully they won't say he shrank when they measure him at his 18 month appointment. That happened to Nadia once! They measured him at the urologist a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't write that measurement down. He received three shots today - MMR, Hib, and flu. Because it's the first time he's ever had the flu shot, he has to have the second dose next month. I scheduled that in conjunction with Ian's four year check-up.

The only thing the doctor was concerned about with Oliver was the fact that he's not walking yet. He wanted to give me a referral for physical therapy for his motor development delay, but I said I think he'll take off soon. He said I need to get the referral next month if he's not walking by then. He does so well with climbing, crawling, stacking blocks, cruising, etc. I'm not worried. Ironically I was concerned at Ian's 15 month appointment that he wasn't walking yet, but that pediatrician (same group) said not to worry. This time the pediatrician was concerned, and I wasn't. Go figure. Oliver successfully used a fork to stab some food and then brought the food up to his mouth with said fork yesterday. I think he'll do fine with walking in the near future.

And not to leave Ian out of this post, here is a video I took of him a couple of days ago "reading" a library book we checked out recently that he loves.

12-15 months old times three

Ian - 12 months old

1. By 13 months Nadia loved putting things in little containers. Ian and Oliver didn't show an interest in that.

2. They all enjoyed clapping their hands!

3. Nadia and Oliver handled their nails being trimmed a LOT better than Ian did. Ian and Oliver only cried during the painful parts of doctor appointments (shots, bloodwork, etc.) whereas Nadia cried when they took her temperature or measured the circumference of her head. Oliver was the only one to initiate a hug with a doctor!

4. They all loved to be tickled, cuddled, and hugged. Nadia at this age would often say "awww" when we'd hug. Ian at this age loved to hold hands. Ian would hold my hand when he was in my lap, and he'd reach out to hold Paul's hand at the dinner table (when he was in his high chair).



Nadia - 12 months old

6. Nadia slept a lot more than Ian - both at night and during naps. Nadia usually got 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 hours between her two naps. Her total average sleep was 14 hours a day. Ian usually got 9-10 hours at night (11 upon rare occasion), and 1 hour a day between his 2 naps. He switched to one (30 minute) nap a day at 14 months. He slept MUCH longer for his naps if he took them in my arms. Oliver sleeps more than Ian but not as much as Nadia. Oliver usually sleeps about 10.5-11 hours at night and 90 minutes between his two naps.

7. At 15 months Nadia weighed 24 lbs (69th percentile), Ian weighed 22 lbs (16th percentile), and Oliver weighs 20.5 lbs (5th percentile).

8. At 15 months Nadia had 11 teeth, Ian had only 2 teeth, and Oliver has 4 teeth.



Oliver - 12 months old

9. Nadia's expressive vocabulary greatly surpassed Ian's and Oliver's at this age. She was even saying words like "hot" and "wet" whereas Ian only said two words - mama and dada and Oliver only says three words (his third is "hi").

10. Nadia was running long before she turned 12 months old. Ian and Oliver were cruising and crawling when they turned 15 months old. Neither Ian or Oliver had taken any steps yet, but they both were able to stand without holding on to anything.

11. Nadia fed stuffed animals with a spoon and engaged in other types of imaginary play during this age span. Ian hasn't begun participating in dramatic play yet. Oliver's skills with rolling and throwing a ball were much more advanced than his siblings.

12. The only thing Nadia or Oliver were interested in watching on tv during this age span were songs. Ian would watch just about anything on tv.



Ian - 15 months old

13. Ian wasn't weaned until he was 14 months old. Nadia and Oliver weaned themselves before they turned a year old. Nadia moved from a bottle to sippy cup at 12 months old, Ian made the transition at 14 months, and Oliver made it at 11 months. Nadia and Oliver were eating all table food, and both of them would eat just about anything. Ian ate a tiny bit of baby food on rare occasion during this time period. He mostly drank milk mixed with baby cereal. Oliver switch from warm to cold milk at 14 months old whereas Nadia didn't until 18 months old and Ian was well over two years old before he had any cold milk.


14. It was harder to change Ian and Oliver's diapers than it was to change Nadia's because they wiggled, squirmed, tried to roll over, and often cried. Ian pooped far more often than Nadia or Oliver did. Ian was far more prone to diaper rash than Nadia or Oliver.

15.All three kids could climb up the stairs at this age. Nadia and Oliver could also go down correctly. Ian was much older before he learned how to go down the stairs.



Nadia - 15 months old

16.All three of them learned to wave "hi" during this age span. Ian almost never initiated waving whereas Nadia loved to wave to people (such as at the grocery store) and was always thrilled when someone would wave back or acknowledge her greeting in some fashion. Oliver occasionally will initiate a wave with a stranger at the playground or library.
17. Nadia had moved to size 5 shoes by the time she was 14 months old. Ian was still a size 4, but he mostly wore Robeez whereas Oliver and Nadia were wearing regular shoes. Oliver is still wearing a size 4, and he won't be outgrowing that size any time soon.

18. Ian loved to carry around a sock - or another article of clothing would suffice if there weren't any socks around. Nadia  and Oliver never did this. He almost always was carrying SOMETHING (such as a small toy) in one of his hands, and he was not a happy camper if you needed to pry it out of his hands for some reason (such as to put his arm through a sleeve when getting him dressed).

19. During this age span Nadia was afraid of the blow dryer and vacuum. Ian doesn't pay much attention to the hairdryer, but running a vacuum around Ian is like waving as red cape in front of a bull - CHARGE! Oliver has never been afraid of a blow dryer, vacuum, or lawn mower.

20. Ian handled being in his carseat much better than Nadia or Oliver did at this age. Oliver and Ian were much better in the stroller than Nadia was.

15 Months Old!

I am so thankful for sweet Oliver. Seeing him grow and mature is more bittersweet for me now that I know he's my last baby. He's such a delightful little guy!

1. Although all of my kids love to cuddle (PTL!), more people have made comments to me about Oliver in this regard than my other two. For example, at his first urologist appointment when the urologist was done examining him, he put his arms toward Dr. Canning to indicate he wanted him to hold him. Dr. Canning was very pleasantly surprised when Oliver put his head on his shoulder and gave him a little hug. Dr. Canning said this was a really nice way to end his day and threatened to take Oliver home with him, ha ha! He said it is very unusual for a patient to give him a hug. My other two kiddos have never done such a thing with any medical personnel. What a sweetheart!

2. When Nadia and Ian were toddlers, they were terrified of the lawn mower. I tried letting them play inside the fence while I was mowing outside the fence, and it was a total failure. Last Friday I mowed most of the lawn while Oliver cruised back and forth along the inside of the fence. He kept waving to me, and if I blew him kisses, he would give me the biggest smile.

3. I thought he would be walking by now, but he's not. He can stand without holding on to anything for more than a minute. He can even get into a standing position without using anything to pull himself up. He can walk if you hold one or both of his hands. I am guessing in the next several weeks he'll start walking all over the place. He can crawl very quickly and also cruises whenever he can. He also can climb up and down the staircase correctly.

4. He has four teeth - two on the bottom in the middle and two molars on the top. He wasn't too cranky when the bottom two came in, but I was very aware that he was teething when the two molars came in on top!

5. He is now drinking cold whole milk in his sippy cup. He will also drink just about any type of juice in a sippy cup, and I've begun teaching him to drink water from an open cup.

6. Aside from cream of wheat and yogurt which I feed him, he feeds himself pretty much everything else that he eats. He will eat just about anything thankfully! Nadia has been know to give Oliver a piece of fruit or vegetable that she's not wanting to eat. He's our little garbage disposal!

7. He's getting a little bit better about not putting things in his mouth (toys, paper, mulch, Kleenex, etc.) although he still has a long way to go in that regard.

8. Almost all of his clothes are size 12 month, but he's wearing a little bit of size 18 month clothing now.

9. Multiples times a day he empties my Tupperware cabinet onto the kitchen floor and empties the sock drawers in his room, Ian's room, and Nadia's room. If you see socks all over the place, you know Oliver was there recently! Sometimes it's hard to watch them grow up, but this is one of those phases I am anxious for them to finish.

10. According to our scale, Oliver currently weighs 20.5 pounds (5th percentile). His 15 month check-up is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

11. His expressive vocabulary is unchanged; he still only says "hi," "mama", and "dada."

12. He's gotten better about me leaving him in the nursery. Yay!

13. He's enjoying being read to more. Previously he was more inclined to eat or rip books than let someone read to him.

14. Of our three kids, his ball throwing and rolling skills are by far the best at this age.

15. The change in the clocks has messed him up, but we're working on getting him back to sleeping about 11 hours each night (8pm to 7am). Yesterday he woke up according to the new time, but this morning he woke up way too early again. As for his naps, my rule is that he must stay in his crib at least 30 minutes for his morning nap and at least 60 minutes for his afternoon nap.

Giving Thanks

Since Oliver turns 15 months old tomorrow, I'm going to do my weekly thankful post today instead.

1. Nadia and Paul had a good time at Home Depot on Saturday morning. Nadia got to use a hammer and do some painting. This Saturday he's taking both Nadia and Ian to Lowe's and dropping Oliver and I off at the mall so I can do some Christmas shopping while they do their car project with Daddy. It's nice that these hardware stores offer these free programs!

2. While getting new tires put on Paul's car (yikes are tires expensive!!!) on Saturday afternoon, Nadia and I were shopping. I think it's the first time in almost four years that she and I went shopping together. I got myself a new watch and two sweaters at Macy's. Nadia picked one of the sweaters out. Then at JCP I got some clothes for Ian to wear in the future from the clearance rack. The original prices totaled $132, but I paid only $15.79 total for the 10 items (88% discount).

3. Paul's mom seems to be doing better. Hopefully that will remain true even when she goes off of her medication in a few days. Tomorrow she's having a small surgery to have some skin cancer removed from her shoulder. We're praying that #1 she'll soon be healthy enough to have the two treatments for her lymphoma and #2 everyone will be healthy enough that she can come up and spend some time at our house on Thanksgiving.

4. Nadia and Oliver seem to have adjusted to the time change! Nadia was the first to adjust (yesterday) and Oliver was the second (today). Ian is still waking up an hour early. We shall see how long it takes him. In the past it has sometime taken him quite a few weeks to make the shift. Last night the kids were still very cranky once we got to 6:30pm. Nadia actually asked to go to bed at 6:30! I kept them up until 8pm, which was a challenge. Oliver almost fell asleep lying on the kitchen floor at one point.

5. In general I think girl's clothing for infants/toddlers is far cuter than boy's, but I do love to see my boys dressed up in suits or sweaters. Ian must have picked up on my preference because sometimes when I ask him to pick a shirt to wear on a week day morning, he opens his sweater drawer and tells me that he wants to look handsome. Aw, he sure knows how to melt my heart. I am grateful he's gotten over his aversion to sweater vests that he had last year. And Nadia still loves to wear dresses. I am not complaining about that either although there are times I insist that she wears pants (such as to Home Depot when paint is involved). I imagine she'll outgrow her love of dresses some day, but I'm going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

6. Ian can now do up to a 100 piece jigsaw puzzles by himself. Yesterday he did a 99 piece puzzle because Oliver ate the 100th piece. He didn't swallow it, but he chewed on it until it was so mushy I had to just throw it away.

7. There had been a lull for a little bit in terms of me being able to add more schools to the list for Paul's job search for 2014, but over the past few days I was able to add 5 more to the list (#12-16). Those five schools are in PA (2), MI, WV, and IN. Hopefully in the near future he'll be invited to participate in a phone interview at one of these 16 schools.

8. Nadia is now starting to try to read various things throughout the day of her own initiative. It's so exciting! I took a short video of Ian reading 3 words this morning.

9. Nadia and Ian really enjoy AWANA. Tonight they sang two songs for the adults attending the missions conference. Ian was singing with gusto!

Surgery Scheduled

I scheduled Oliver's first hypospadias surgery today. It will be taking place 9 weeks from today on January 6 in Philadelphia. Our neighbor who is a nurse has agreed to give Oliver his two testosterone shots. He'll have his first shot three weeks from today.

Oliver woke up at 4am this morning. We let him cry himself back to sleep. I have no idea why he woke up that early. Then he woke up at 5:45. That made sense because he used to wake up at 6:45, which is what time it would have been prior to the time change. We let him cry himself back to sleep. Nadia and Ian climbed in to bed with us at 6am, which again would have been their normal wake up time of 7am. We put them to bed according to the new time, but they woke up according to the old time, which means they lost at least one hour of sleep (Oliver lost a lot more than that). We shall see how many days it takes their bodies to switch to the time change.